Timescape, the sixth-season episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, is so insanely impossible on like 100 different levels, but it's just so fun to watch. It's maddening.
Time is frozen. Oh, but not everywhere, just on a couple ships. Oh, but not if you're wearing the magic armbands. Oh, but yes if an alien touches you. Oh, but not if you want to move a console, use a computer, or force open a door. And you can control it like a PVR using a simple tricorder. And you can draw smiley faces in the slowly-expanding cloud of lethal radiation and who knows what of a warp core breach. Also, Troi knows all about Romulan engine rooms, Picard thinks smiley faces are funny, Data gets startled by a kettle, and LaForge -- who can see someone's heartbeat -- can't tell that someone has moved.
All explainable within canon and Star Trek physics, actually. That's what makes it fun too.
The only part of the episode I could never accept was the artificial singularity used as a warp core. The ship would implode, because there is no energy barrier that could resist a singularity.
Oh, I have no problem with that (despite the impossibility) because that's established Star Trek "fact." If they invented it for one episode only it would be a different story, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, TV sci-fi hasn't been fun since ST:TNG. The roommates keep buying Battlestar Galactica and Stargate on DVD, and those shows are guaranteed to drive me from the room. Where is the twisted science and where are the ethical puzzles? It's all soap opera now. Soap opera with bad CGI.
You really ought to give BSG a try. There are large ethical/philosophical questions: what does it mean to be human? Is it in your biology or your actions? What gives humanity the right to exist at all?
Admittedly, there is a strong operatic (not soap) quality to BSG (not as bad as the original), but the writing is good. And I enjoy the fact that Ron Moore, the creator, hates CGI scenes and tries to avoid them.
I've heard many good things about BSG, but I hated what I saw of the original, and I couldn't get into the mini-series. Between my sister's viewing habits and Travis' viewing habits, sci-fi TV scares me. Too much Andromeda and Stargate.
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All explainable within canon and Star Trek physics, actually. That's what makes it fun too.
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I thought you were the anti-Trekkie?
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Although TNG is a close runner up, and DS9 rocks my socks. Haven't seen Voyager or Enterprise yet.
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But yes, it's all fun. :-)
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Admittedly, there is a strong operatic (not soap) quality to BSG (not as bad as the original), but the writing is good. And I enjoy the fact that Ron Moore, the creator, hates CGI scenes and tries to avoid them.
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Have you been watching the new Doctor Who? Shall I set you up with a couple of DVDs?
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I should hope you get CBC... :-)
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...and my interest for watching them is this much: \-\
...so you see my dilemma.
hmm
Re: hmm